20th Century Animation
Twentieth Century Fox Animation (stylized as 20th Century Fox Animation) is the animation division of the film studio 20th Century Fox, tasked for production feature-length animated film. Background The original 20th Century Fox Cartoon Studios (it was formerly Kenny & Kella Young Productions until 1960) was closed down by 20th Century Fox in 1972. Before 20th Century Fox restarted its animation division, 20th Century Fox released its first six animated films, such as Wizards, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (both released in 1977), My Own Pet ''(released in 1979), ''Fire and Ice (released in 1983), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (released in 1992), Once Upon a Forest (released in 1993), Pets World and The Pagemaster (both released in 1994). History The division initially started in February 1994 as Fox Family Films, as one of four film divisions of 20th Century Fox under executive John Matoian. The division was planned to produce six feature films a year as part of a plan to produce more films per year overall. Fox senior vice president of production Chris Meledandri was transferred into the unit as executive vice president in March 1994 after having being hired the previous year. The week of May 6, 1994, Fox Family announced the hiring of Don Bluth and Gary Goldman for a new $100 million animation studio which began construction that year in Phoenix, Arizona. In three years, the animation studio would produce and release its first film, Anastasia. In September 1994, Matoian was promoted by Rupert Murdoch to head up the Fox network. It produced live-action films such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), Dunston Checks In (1996) and Home Alone 3. By August 1997, Fox Family had decreased the number of live films. In 1998, following the success of Anastasia, the division was renamed to Fox Animation Studios, refocusing on animated feature films, including stop-motion, mixed media and digital production. The division's live action films in development at the time included Marvel Comics' Silver Surfer, the disaster film spoof Disaster Area, and Fantastic Voyage. Ever After (1998), a Cinderella adaptation, was the division's last live action film. Chris Meledandri remained as the president of the division, which was known by 1999 as 20th Century Fox Animation. The Phoenix studio, which kept the Fox Animation Studios name, laid off 2/3 of its employee workforce in February 2000 before its closure in late June of that year. Fox Animation Studios Main article: Fox Animation Studios From 1994–2000, Fox operated Fox Animation Studios, a traditional animation studio which was started to compete with Walt Disney Animation Studios, which was experiencing great success at the time with films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. The Fox studio, however, was not as successful. Their first feature Anastasia made nearly $140 million at the worldwide box office on a $53 million budget in 1997, but their next feature, Titan A.E., was a large financial loss, losing $100 million for 20th Century Fox in 2000. The lack of box office success, coupled with the rise of computer animation, led Fox to shut down the Fox Animation Studios. * Anastasia (1997) * Bartok the Magnificent (1999) direct-to-video * Titan A.E. (2000) Blue Sky Studios Main article: Blue Sky Studios Since 1997, Fox owns Blue Sky Studios, a computer animation company known for the Ice Age franchise. Fox has had much more success with Blue Sky, and the box office receipts of their films are competitive with those of Pixar and DreamWorks. They have released twelve feature films, numerous short films and television specials. Major feature films include: RandomToons Studios Main article: RandomToons Studios Since 1996, RandomToons Studios opened its doors to produce RandomToons-related products. Co-productions In development * Mutts (TBA) * Mr. Men Little Miss * The Littlest Bigfoot (TBA) * Zita the Spacegirl (TBA) * The Girl Who Drank the Moon (TBA) * Momotaro (TBA) * Puff, the Magic DragonS (TBA) * Untitled Family Guy filmS (TBA) * A Tale of Momentum & Inertia (TBA) * With Kind Regards from Kindergarten (TBA) * The Witch Boy (TBA) * The Simpsons Movie 2 (TBA) * Bolivar (TBA) Other * FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue (1998) * MonkeyboneS (2001) (co-production by 1492 Pictures) * Kung Pow: Enter the FistS (2002) (co-production by O Entertainment) * Isle of Dogs (2018) * Call of the WildS (2019) (co-production with Technoprops and 3 Arts Entertainment) S Combines live-action with animation See also * Fox Television Animation * Fox Interactive * RandomToons Category:Company Category:JeremyAngryBirds3 Pictures Wikia